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Thursday, May 30, 2013

For
character generation in our new Stars Without Numbers game,
I gave my players a list of the "known" systems in
Persephone Sector. These are the planets and systems that get regular
space travel and are part of greater interstellar society (for
good or ill). As the party discovers new planets (especially out in
Frontier Space) they will "unlock" new planets they can use
as homeworlds for new characters.

Here's
the list of starting planets, along with a brief description of each.
As things progress, I'll detail each planet in greater detail.

Anatu

Language:
English

A
hot, humid planet covered in fungal jungles and swamps. Human cities
are built on high plateaus where the temperature is cooler. The
unique flora and fauna allows Anatu to produce medicines that rival
pretech, and the citizens are uniformly beautiful and youthful.

(High
Concept: 1970s lycra sci-fi)

Cedar

Language:
Akkadian

A
beautiful planet of ancient forests and warm oceans, Cedar is the
home of the Temple of Babylon Eternal, the most powerful and popular
religion in Persephone Sector. Cedar is the homeworld of the exotic
reptilian aliens known as the Naga.

(High
Concept: Techno-pagan Mesopotamia)

Chiaroscuro

Language:
Spanish

This
planet is constantly shrouded by massive black storm clouds that pour
wind and rain upon the fortified cities. Chiaroscuro is the home
planet of the powerful Titanomachy Technologies corporation. Titan
Tech is locked in constant, bitter competition with Oroborus Inc. The
planet is ruled by a hereditary monarchy and old-money noble
families.

(High
Concept: Space-Borgias)

Croesus

Language:
English

Croesus
Minor is a habitable moon orbiting the gas giant Croesus Major. Large
sprawling supercities are surrounded by vast tracts of tamed
wilderness and industrial farms. Croesus is a second-wave colony
founded by a consortium of corporations from Anatu and Netherpool. It
is now the largest corporate hub in the sector. The powerful Oroborus
Incorporated wields incredible power on Croesus and surrounding
systems..

(High
Concept: Blade
Runnermeets
Mass
Effect’s
Citadel)

Dolores

Language:
English

A
planet of rolling hills and forest littered with the ruins of an
ancient alien civilization. The New Wave colony allied families has
dissolved into a violent three-way clan war. Travelers are encouraged
to avoid landing on Dolores.

(High
Concept: Appalachian Mountains/Hatfield-and-McCoys IN SPACE!)

Gehenna

Language:
English

A
hellish planet of volcanoes and lava oceans wrapped in a corrosive
atmosphere. The planet holds great mineral wealth, and a rugged
lava-mining colony has sprung up here. Humans work alongside the
silicon-insect aliens known as Myrmidons.

(High
Concept: Janus VI meets Mustafar)

Katarina

Language:
Russian

Cold
taiga planet covered with mountains and pine forests. Centuries ago,
the Mankiller plague devastated the male population. Katarina now has
a matriarchal society divided into small city-states with a
black-powder level of technology. Contact has recently been
re-established with Katarina after large veins of Prometheum were
discovered by corporate prospectors.

(High
Concept: Russian black-powder amazons)

Kraken

Alien

This
ocean world is home to the octopus-like Kraken. The Kraken are known
as the greatest shipwrights in the Sector. There is very little
surface land on Kraken, but the natives have many ancient cities deep
under the waves, and many shipyards orbit the planet. There are no
human settlements here, but Port Nautilus is a port of call for many
human spacers.

(High
Concept: Alien water-world)

Las
Diablas

Language:
Spanish

Las
Diablas is a binary star system consisting of two large read suns
(Lilith and Jezebel). Its lone habitable planet is a desert badland
littered with the ruins of a dead FIrst Wave colony. It’s now the
home to bandits and outlaws of all stripes. Humans who spend too many
years on Las Diablas begin to develop adaptational mutations: solid
black eyes, scaly red skin, and horns.

A
cold planet of coral forests with an argon atmosphere. The planet is
surrounded by a dense asteroid field known as the Sea of Stones. The
only habitation is a large maximum-security prison all-but abandoned
by it's founders on Netherpool.

(High
Concept: Prison planet, Arkham Asylum IN SPACE!)

Moloch

Language:
English

A
planet of rocky deserts orbiting a red sun, Moloch is ruled by the
powerful psionic caste. Moloch is home to the largest and most
powerful of the already-rare psionic academies. The psionic cult
Omega Ascendant wields massive influence on Moloch and surrounding
systems.

(High
Concept: Korriban mashed up with Dune)

Netherpool

Language:
English

A
barren, rocky world covered with massive spire-mountains of
glistening crystal. Vacuum-sealed cities harvest sunlight reflected
from the crystals for power. The crystal mountains hide remnants of
long-dead unknown alien civilization. The Netherpudlians have a
strict, conservative society with an esoteric legal system. Tread
carefully.

(High
Concept: Space-Calvinists)

New
Arcadia

Language:
English

A
young colony and the new spiritual homeworld for the Church of the
New Prophets. The giant Golden Tree is a pilgrimage site for the
Faithful. “Archons” (religious warriors) protect the Faithful
from the violent and primitive native aliens known as Golgothans and
other dangers.

(High
Concept: Dogs
in the Vineyard IN
SPACE!)

Uld

Alien

A
Hochog colony world, Uld is a planet of cold granite mountains and
snowy tundra. Hochog warriors constantly clash for control of the
planet’s limited resources. Young Hochog warriors often leave Uld
in order to gain honor and gather wealth and power to bring back to
their warlords. A weird aberration of Uld’s magnetic field
create massive floating “islands” of stone that drift across the
surface of the planet, forming veritable mobile nations.

(High
Concept: Space orcs living in a Roger Dean painting)

Volgograd

Language:
Russian

A
temperate planet of steppes, prairies, and mountains. Volgograd is
ruled by an omnipresent police state that maintains an
highly-efficient semi-caste system. City-sized factories constantly
churn out product that supplies the entire sector. Volgograd suffered
the least of all local planets during the Scream, and boasts the
largest population in the sector (5 billion).

(High-Concept:
Space-soviets with a touch of Imperial Rome)

Yurgoloth

Alien

This
cold, rocky planet is the homeworld of the slug-like Yurglings. The
Yurglings have allowed several human colonies to establish floating
cities on Yurgoloth’s cold, salty oceans. They charge the human
colonists outrageous leasing fees.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

So we wrapped up our second Season of
Monsterhearts and my group decided to do something different.
I love me some high-narrative story games, but I decided that I
wanted to run some straight-up adventures. “There's a big ol'
dangerous thing over there. Why don't you go take care of that?
Here's some material rewards to encourages you.” Classic.

We've
had one session so far, and it's gone pretty well. Despite my
suggestion that they try to avoid going “too-evil,” my players
didn't take long to dive into murder and grand theft. We all had fun,
though, so it looks like we're going to have a team of would-be
pirates and bounty hunters.

Unlike
a lot of my RPG brethren, I don't usually use a lot of house-rules. I
do have a few I'm using for my SWN game, though:

Character
Generation

1.
To generate attribute scores, roll 18d6 and divide them into six
groups of three. Put them into whatever stat you want. You don't get
the “automatic 14” in your prime requisite, though. If you
somehow can't get a net +1 in your modifiers, re-roll the entire set.

2.
Maximum Hit Points at first level.

3.
Available non-human races are the Hochog (space-orcs from the SWN
book), the Naga (androgynous/hermaphrodite lizard people), and the
Yurglings (crafty space-slugs).

I'll
have more details about these races in a later post.

Combat

1. I'm swiping most of the combat
maneuvers from Adventurer Conqueror King System.
In short, to grapple, disarm, trip, etc. you make an attack a -4 and
the target makes a save vs. paralysis (Physical Effect or Evasion
save in SWN).

2. Dual wielding two melee weapons
or two ranged weapons gives you a +1 to hit. Use the damage for your
main weapon. (Also stolen from ACKS.)

3. Add your Attribute Bonus to
Saving Throws:

Physical Effect = CON (occasionally
STR)

Mental Effect = WIS

Evasion = DEX

Technology = INT

Luck = CHA (representing your sense
of self and place in the universe)

The game takes place in Persephone
Sector. I will share those details with you all soon!

So what with the three-day weekend and all, I lost track of what day it was and totally forgot that yesterday was Monday. So yep, this week's map is late.

Anyhoo...

Down in the ancient kingdom of Dunharrow, the kings of old were buried in crypts carved into the sides of holy mountains. Centuries have come and gone since the fall of Dunharrow. Now, it looks like somethings from bellow the earth have dug up and broke into the crypts. The ghosts of the kings no longer rest easy. It's time for some heroes to step in.

Friday, May 24, 2013

I've
never much cared for halflings. I couldn't even tell you why. After
all, I love The Hobbit and I
even like Kender. But as a D&D race/class they never much
thrilled me. So, as I piece together the Deep Down Below as a
FLAILSNAILS setting, I decided to reskin halflings as molemen.

Molemen
are natives of the subterranean realms of the Deep Down Below. These
three-foot tall creatures resemble humanoid naked mole rats. They
have large teeth, tiny black eyes, iron-hard claws, and hairless pink
skin covered with a thin layer of mucus. Despite their hideous
appearance, molemen possess a sophisticated culture that values
industry and learnedness. Their ideas of natural rights and
representative democracy are alien to most other cultures. Molemen
are fond of powdered wigs and frock coats.

In addition to their own hideous hissing, clicking language, molemen speak common, dwarf, and morlock.

Moleman
Racial Class

Requirements:
DEX 9, CON 9

Prime Requisite:
STR and DEX

Hit
Die: d6

Maximum
Level: 8

Weapons:
As halfling

Armor:
Any, plus shields

Fights
as: Fighter

Saves
as: halfling

Special
Abilities

Claw/Claw:
A moleman posses large, iron-hard claws on the tips of his fingers. Instead of using a weapon, he can make two claw attacks each round against one target with
his normal to-hit chance. Each claw inflicts 1d4 points of damage. In
non-combat situations, the claws function as high-quality picks and
shovels.

Phosphorescent
Mucus: Unlike
most subterranean races, molemen do not possess infravision. Instead
they secret a luminous mucus from their skin. Once per day, a moleman
can secret enough mucus to effectively reproduce the effect of a
light
spell with a caster level equal to the moleman's level. Like light,
the moleman can even blind opponents by targeting an enemy's eyes
with a glob of slime. At 5th
level, this ability upgrades to where the mucus reproduces the
effects of continual
light.

Sneaky:
If he remains silent and motionless, a moleman can hide in shadows
and behind cover with amazing effectiveness. The moleman's chance of
remaining unseen is 5-in-6 underground, indoors, or in dungeons, or
2-in-6 in outdoor or wilderness environments.

Small:
Because
of their small size, a moleman enjoys a -2 bonus to their AC when
fighting larger-than-man-sized creatures.

Reching
8th
Level:
When a moleman reaches level 8, he has the option of founding a new
moleman warren. These warrens are usually located deep underground in
caverns and tunnels secured from the wandering monsters of the Deep
Down Below. The moleman usually digs these first tunnels with his own claws, but the warren quickly expands as other moleman migrate to
the new settlement. The founding moleman serves of governor of the new
settlement, but if he rules poorly or foolishly he may be voted out
of office.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

The concept of this monster came up in a particularly silly moment in last weekend's Dread game. I decided to state it out for Labyrinth Lord, et al.

Also, I am a grumpy curmudgeon who thinks that modern stupid music and dancing isn't as cool as the stupid music and dancing I did in my 20s. Kids these days...

Banshee,
Dubstep (Dub Sidhe)

No.
Enc.: 1

Alignment:
Chaotic

Movement:
150' (50')

Armor
Class: 2

Hit
Dice: 6***

Attacks:
1

Damage:
2d6

Save:
E6

Morale:
10

Hoard
Class: XIV

XP:
1,070

These
rare, incorporeal undead appear as young elves in tattered clothing
wearing smoked glass lenses over their eyes and glowing bracelets on
their wrists.

The
Dub Sidhe is naturally ethereal. Only magic and weapons of at least
+1 enchantment can hurt it. In combat, the monster will attack with
a loud screeching attack of distorted trebles and thundering bass.
Every character within 30' of the Dub Sidhe must save vs. dragon breath or take 2d6 damage. A successful save will reduce this damage
by half.

Once
per day, the Dub Sidhe can produce a crazy “song” of wobbling madness and strange rhythms. Any creature within 60' of the spirit
must save vs. spells. Those who fail are compelled to dance stupidly
for 2d6 rounds. While dancing, the character cannot attack of cast
spells and suffers +4 penalty to their AC. Additionally, the
character suffers 1d4 points of damage each round of dancing due to
pure exhaustion and throbbing bass. Killing the Dub Sidhe will end this dance
prematurely.

A
character who dies from the Dub Sidhe's dance will rise up the next
night as a new, fully independent Dub Sidhe.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Out in the untamed lands rests Skull-Bone Barrow. Legend says that the barrow was crafted around the actual skull of a dead giant. Scholars say it's just an unusual affectation of primitive architects. Still others say it's just an odd coincidence that the huge burial chamber resembles a skull.

Private crypts form the "teeth" of the barrow. Huge pits of ever-burning charnel fire form the "eyes." The "nose" is a black pit that leads to unknown Stygian darkness.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Back in the mid 1980s, the Drow were scary, at least in my neighborhood. Everyone in my local D&D scene, no matter which group they played with, all knew--KNEW!-- that drows were cannibals. If the dark elves caught your character, it was only a matter of time before they killed and ate you. Almost 30 years later, when I think of drow I don't think of tortured anti-heroes or demonic dominatrices. I first think of people-eating monsters.

I like the idea of cannibal drow. It makes them monsters similar to good old-fashioned vampires. "This creature looks human(ish) and beautiful, but it is actually an alien fiend that will kill and eat you if you get too close." The whole capture-and-eat theme fits well with their classic spider motif as well.

I recently started to wonder where this idea came from. Was it merely a regional thing restricted to my small Ohio town and its neighbors? It can't be just that, can it? I remember seeing a throw-away joke about cannibal drow in the old "Yamara" comic.

(c) Manui & Adams

I skimmed through my old First Edition books, and haven't found any references to drow eating people. I've poked around Google a bit, and "cannibal drow" only brings up a couple references to drow eating other sentient creatures, but it's mostly speculative. "You can't farm in the Underdark. Maybe drows are cannibals?" not "I remember when the Lady Taranulass cooked and ate my dwarf!"

So I'm damnably curious. Does anyone else out there remember Drow being cannibals? Were the dark elves people-eaters in your games, or was this just a localized phenomenon?

The Stonepass is the only safe passage through the treacherous Westwarden Mountains. Back in Days of Old, the Neversleep clan of dwarves operated a way station halfway down the pass. No one's heard from them in ages, though. Now that the Hag's War is over, someone should probably go check up on them.

"Thanks for visiting!"

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Who I Am

I am a long-time gamer who enjoys both new-style story games and old-style OSR stuff. I love drawing maps and goofy monsters. I help write, layout, and illustrate games for Hex Games, and I keep taking stabs at creating webcomics with mixed results. I talk about RPGs (and other things) at my Bernie the Flumph blog.